2003 Rwandan presidential election

none Rwanda presidential 2000 Rwandan presidential election 2000 25 August 2003 3,948,749 96.55% 2010 Rwandan presidential election 2010 Kagame2003Cropped.jpg 0087DC Paul Kagame Rwandan Patriotic Front 3,544,777 95.05% Twagiramungu Faustin.jpg Faustin Twagiramungu Independent 134,865 3.62% President Paul Kagame Rwandan Patriotic Front Paul Kagame Rwandan Patriotic Front Presidential elections were held in Rwanda on 25 August 2003.Elections in Rwanda https://web.archive.org/web/20200822214506/http://africanelections.tripod.com/rw.html#2003_Presidential_Election 2020-08-22 African Elections Database They were the first direct presidential elections since the Rwandan Civil War and the first multi-party presidential elections in the country's history. Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) was elected to a seven-year term with 95% of the vote.Presidential election of 25 August 2003 Adam Carr The results were disputed by Faustin Twagiramungu, the main opposition candidate, who argued that "People were controlled, people were forced to vote. It’s not possible that we in the opposition got only 3.7% of the vote. There is something wrong."https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2003-08-26-41-faustin/299172.html Voice of America Faustin Twagiramungu To Challenge Rwandan Election Results 26 August 2003 The elections were widely condemned as fraudulent by outside observers; according to the scholar Timothy Longman, "the Rwandan population experienced the elections not as a transition to democracy but as a series of forced mobilizations that ultimately helped to consolidate RPF rule."Longman Timothy Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda 2017 Cambridge University Press 9781107678095 164f en The international reactions were nevertheless muted, which, according to Filip Reyntjens, "reinforced the RPF in its conviction that things would blow over, which they did." In Reyntjens' view, "after failing Rwanda in 1994, the international community did so again in 2003 by allowing a dictatorship to take hold."Reyntjens Filip Political Governance in Post-Genocide Rwanda 2013 Cambridge University Press 9781107043558 42f en Background Prior to the elections a campaign was launched by the RPF to ban the Democratic Republican Movement (MDR), which was charged with "divisionism". This move was criticized by Human Rights Watch, which stated "If the MDR is dissolved, conditions for the elections will change even more dramatically. As the only party outside of the RPF with any substantial support, the MDR would be the only one able to seriously contest at least the legislative if not the presidential elections."https://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/africa/rwanda0503bck.pdf Preparing for Elections: Tightening Control in the Name of Unity, Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper May 2003 Human Rights Watch The MDR was banned, and Faustin Twagiramungu was forced to run as an independent.Kagame won, a little too well https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2003/08/28/kagame-won-a-little-too-well The Economist 28 August 2003 Kigali Results Paul Kagame Rwandan Patriotic Front 3544777 Faustin Twagiramungu Independent 134865 Jean-Népomuscène Nayinzira Independent 49634 83291 3948749 African Elections Database References Category:Presidential elections in Rwanda Rwanda Election